King of Lydia, one of the first to strike metal coinage
The last king of the Lydian kingdom in Asia Minor, famed for wealth rivaling a state — the Greeks had the saying "as rich as Croesus." Lydia is held to be one of the first places to use standardized metal coinage: gold and silver struck to fixed weight and stamped with the king’s seal, giving trade for the first time a unified, trustworthy medium. The birth of money rewrote the world of barter into an economy that could be priced, saved, and lent. Croesus himself was fabulously rich, yet on the strength of a trusted oracle rashly went to war and was destroyed by Cyrus of Persia — his wealth could not buy his kingdom.
How rich was Croesus? The Greeks coined a proverb straight from his name — "as rich as Croesus." Yet when this rich king asked the oracle whether to attack Persia, it answered, "you will destroy a great empire" — overjoyed, he marched, and the empire destroyed was his own. The first to enjoy the benefit of coinage was also the first to taste that wealth cannot buy destiny.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.